Deadly Daughter 02: Good-bye
by Higuchimon
Summary: They were a deadly team, until the day Asuka chose to walk away from it all, leaving Selena on her own.


**Title:** Good-bye  
 **Characters:** Selena, Asuka|| **Ship:** Selena x Asuka  
 **Word Count:** 1,075|| **Chapters:** 1/1  
 **Genre:** Drama|| **Rated:** K  
 **Challenges:** Diversity Writing: Arc-V Alternate/Divergent Timelines: C18, losing something; Arc-V Rare Pairs Week day #2  
 **Notes:** This is set in an AU I've been toying with wherein Akaba Leo kept Yuuri under guard and trained Selena to gather her counterparts. I will write more of it one day. Yuuri isn't a happy cabbage at all in this world.  
 **Summary:** They were a deadly team, until the day Asuka chose to walk away from it all, leaving Selena on her own.

* * *

Ice choked Selena from the inside out. Her fingers tightened into fists as she stared at Barrett. She could not believe what she'd just heard. It couldn't be true.

"Say that again."

"Tenjoin-san didn't return. We found a note in her room indicating that she left on purpose." Barrett's eyes quietly met hers. They both knew that Asuka wouldn't have left without a reason: she wasn't one given to wandering off. She accomplished her missions with brisk efficiency that frequently left people staring in her wake.

But this wasn't a mission. This was something else altogether.

This was _treachery_.

"Let me see it." Selena thrust her hand out and Barrett dropped the note into it. An actual physical note, not something written on a laptop or a tablet.

Selena unfolded it and read the swiftly written words.

 _Selena, I can't do this anymore. The Professor is the devil and this war is beyond wrong. We're hurting innocent people who have done nothing to hurt us, without even giving them a chance to fight back. It's wrong. I know it now. You know it too._

So, I'm going. I'm sorry. I'd rather not fight you but as long as you serve the Professor's whims, then that's what I will have to do.

I love you. Good-bye.

Simple words, right to the point, and each one dug into Selena's heart as if they were edged in diamonds. She thought she dismissed Barrett. At least when she looked up again, he wasn't there anymore.

She crumpled the note and tore it into shreds, scattering the shreds into the fireplace.

How many times had she and Asuka sat on the couch in front of that fireplace, planning either a battle or how to approach one of her counterparts?

Too many times. Too many times they'd been so close to one another, where Selena could smell the freshly washed fragrance of Asuka's hair, feel the warmth of their skin so close together, see the efforts as they strove toward their mutual goal.

Her heart squeezed harder, a thousand memories flickering through of her second in command.

No. Asuka was more than just that. Asuka was her right hand, her closest friend, her only real friend.

Asuka was the first and only person she'd ever kissed. The only person she'd ever wanted to kiss, if it came to that. Someone whose mind for tactics and strategy equaled her own, and who had actually defeated her a few times in dueling.

Not that often; Selena had been trained by the Professor himself. But it had happened perhaps three times out of seven that they'd dueled at all. Enough that each time only reinforced that Asuka was exactly who Selena needed, and always had needed.

And now she wasn't there. With only the flimsiest of excuses as well.

 _Excuses and lies. We're not fighting people who can't fight back. We're taking them out before they would do it to us._

The tiniest of twitches deep in her heart whispered otherwise, whispered that she should find Asuka and talk to her, ask her why she'd made this decision, and why now, when they only had one more of her counterparts to find at all?

If she were going to turn traitor, couldn't she have done it when they'd already found the last one and the plan could keep on going? Why did Asuka have to do this _now_?

Why did she even have to do it at all? Why couldn't she have come to Selena and talked to her about it?

 _I would've explained things to her. Shown her that she's wrong. Found out what made her think like that._

Was it spending all that time in XYZ and Synchro? Selena had spent almost as much time there but she hadn't really interacted with the locals. Asuka had.

Asuka moved among them, learned about them, found the one they searched for, and let Selena know about it. She'd even carded a few Fusion warriors while in XYZ. It had been necessary to keep her cover there, to get Selena's XYZ counterpart's trust.

If that was the answer, then Selena knew at least one solution to the problem: she would get Asuka back and keep her in Fusion until she'd learned where her loyalties should really be.

 _What if she's found someone else, too?_ Selena didn't think it was all that likely – at least she hoped it wasn't – but now that the thought occurred to her, it set deep claws in her heart. There were three other dimensions and Asuka could go to any of them. What if she'd decided not just to abandon the war effort but Selena as well?

She'd said that she would fight Selena before she'd said that she loved her. She'd never even said those words to Selena's face.

Selena bit her lip until she tasted blood, tasted treachery on her own tongue as she'd once tasted Asuka's kisses.

No more. Never again. Selena shook her head, coming to a decision as difficult as it was necessary. The Professor had always warned her never to get too close to other people. Her destiny was something else, something that would lead her apart from others.

 _He was right. I shouldn't have gotten close to her._

But she had, and only the part of her that ached and wept for Asuka's treachery hurt now. Her warrior's heart only regretted the loss of a companion and her greatest ally.

She stepped to the bathroom and washed her face, wiping the evidence of tears. She would have to go to Standard soon, with or without Asuka, and find the last of her counterparts. Then the Professor's plan could take its next step, reuniting them.

 _It's for the best. It's putting back what should have been,_ Selena reminded herself. She couldn't imagine what it might be like to be someone else, any more than she could remember having been someone else.

Would that person love Asuka like she did?

Like she had?

Had. She couldn't love a traitor. She let all of that ice that froze her from the first moment she read the note consume her. It was for the best. She would not let herself feel anything else, not for Tenjoin Asuka, not for anyone else. What mattered was the Professor's plan. Her _father's_ plan.

But whether Selena admitted it to herself or not, love did not die by force of will alone.

 **The End**

 **Notes:** I have some interesting thoughts not just on what Yuuri and Dennis are up to in this world but exactly how Selena and Asuka found Ruri and Rin, and possibly Asuka as a Lancer. Still haven't decided on that part yet. I still want to find a way for Shun to obliterate Dennis somehow in this world. But time will tell what happens and time hasn't yet told _me_ what happens.


End file.
